Once crews from Comstock, Portage and Kalamazoo Township
fire departments were inside the mixer, they placed a 5-foot-tall tube around
the man. Then, they vacuumed the aggregate around the tube and placed a harness
on him, Mulac said.

The man, whose name was not released, was sent to Borgess Medical
Center for further evaluation.

Coworkers patted the smiling man on the back as he was
wheeled to the ambulance.

Sam Dole, 51, was helping cut down a tree with Allen
Newhouse, 54, in his backyard neighboring Consumers Concrete Corporation on
East Michigan Avenue when they heard someone yelling, he said.

"He was yelling 'Help' really bad," Dole said.
"We heard him hollering and went and told his people."

They were the first eyewitnesses to hear the yelling coming
from the mixer shaft around 2:30 p.m., they said. One of the Consumers
employees ran up to check on the man and found him trapped in concrete dust up
to his chest, Dole said.